Many offices, stores, factories and homes are equipped with drinking water dispensers for their members. While some dispensers are plumbed permanently to a tap water supply, others employ a user replaceable supply, such as an inverted water bottle removably mounted on top of the dispenser. Examples of the design of such dispensers are U.S. Pat. No. 3,698,603 issued October 1972 to Radcliffe and U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,349 issued May 1987 to Johansen.
One of the primary difficulties with such prior art dispenser systems employing an inverted bottle lies in the procedure of user replacement of a used bottle. At this time, a nearby full bottle has to be substituted in its place. Typically the bottles are of 5 gallon capacity and therefore very heavy. This means that, after the user removes the used bottle and opens the cap of the full bottle, the user would have to lift the full bottle and, in one very quick movement, invert it and insert its neck accurately into the intake opening on top of the dispenser and maneuver the body of the bottle into vertical position for normal operation. Any less than good execution of this exceptionally demanding procedure will result in excessive water spillage plus possible personal injury. In any case, the current procedure always wastes some water through unavoidable spillage, in addition to being dangerous to the user.
Two prior patents taught the idea of, upon loading of the full container, piercing an otherwise sealing member of the container thus establishing either the flow of one single fluid or the simultaneous flow of two different fluids from the supply bottle. The piercing element being a permanent part of the dispenser. These are U.S. Pat. No. 1,248,704 issued October 1916 to Pogue and U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,775 issued June 1987 to Zolnierczyk, et al. But the implementation of these methods would require the modification of the existing dispensers and bottles which is undesirable.
Other prior art patents have taught the use of a frangible, burstable or releasable membrane seal attached to a squeezable plastic bottle, such as a container for motor oil. The membrane prevents spillage of the contents as the bottle is inverted. Once the bottle is in place, the bottle is squeezed to create an internal pressure which opens the seal, allowing the contents to pour out. Examples of these can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,105,986 to Pham et al. for Non-Spill Inverter Devices, Containers, and Methods, 4,938,390 to Markva for a Liquid Storage Container with Dispensing Closure, 4,789,082 to Sampson for Container Discharge Control, and 4,696,328 to Rhodes, Jr. for Spillage Prevention. These devices and methods are unsuitable for water bottles which are made of rigid materials such as glass, polycarbonate or other rigid plastics. These rigid containers resist being squeezed which prevents the user from generating enough internal pressure to burst the seal.